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I've played CM game series long time ago since CM1. I've read many great posts, great tactical analysis and great tweaking technique. I learnt a lot and did well in all versions of CM games. Thank all tactic specialist for your inspiration.
FM2007 is somehow quite different from the previous versions. In previous versions, the formation is very important. If you can find a formation which is very suitable for a squad or several important players. You may use it for the whole season smoothly. Or some unbeatable formation, say diablo, will help you winning all trophies. You don't need to worry so much about tactical issue. In FM2007, I've played 5 seasons with Everton. I feel that the formation is not that important now. You may use the traditional 4-4-2 to get high-flying result, once most of your players can play their best position in the formation. That is one point. The second point I wanna share with all specialists is that tweaking becomes the most important part during the match in FM2007. Although many of you specialists have shared a lot about tweaking during the match, I would also like to share with you some of my new concepts. By applying my new concept, I've been qualified to ECL by beating Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal and drawing with Man Utd at my 4th season in Everton.
My new concept is called "Action Zone Analysis". I think most of you always ignore this. However, it's very important. It should be one of the key factor to decide the mentality, tempo, passing style and the defensive line of the squad.
To begin with, understand your each of your first team player. Every player has his best position (it is not shown obviously in the previous versions). So you must design a formation which can suit as many your first team players as possible. Then, you may go to match. Before the kick-off, you may set all the sliders at the mid-point first. And then as usual, set individual instructions for players, if any.
Then, start the match. Change to screen to see the action zone. You'd better use extended mode. In the first 15 mins, the bar charts are not quite accurate and fluctuate vigorously. After 15 mins, the bar charts will become steady. You may see clearly the situation of 3 areas. The height of the bar represents the possession of ball (or the advantage of the team) in that area. If you have advantage in the penalty area of the opponent, just set relatively attacking mentality and push up your defensive line. If you have advantage in the midfield, just slide the mentality and defensive line to the mid-point. If you have advantage in your own penalty area, just set relatively defensive mentality and drag back your defensive line.
You may ask, "if I don't have any advantage in all areas, what should I do?" Just change your passing style and the tempo. As ususal, short passing style matches slow tempo. You may use this combination in away games. At home, you may use faster tempo with more direct passing style. Once you've a right hythm
for your team, the bars change immediately. Your team's advantage will appear. Then, you may set your mentality and defensive line accordingly.
This tweaking technique can help you to create more scoring chance even you are facing strong opponents like Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal or Man Utd. However, like the ECL final this year, Milan vs Liverpool, Liverpool created more scoring chances than Milan but Milan captured 2 fatal attacks. So this technique cannot guarantee you to win the game but can help you to get the upper hand during the match.
The above-mentioned concept may not be that perfect enough. If any of you have other idea, please feel free to comment it. Thank you.
Nice idea, I have been trying it out and it seems pretty effective. My main question is what do you suggest if you have the advantage in both penalty areas but not in midfield early on when first adjusting the mentality and defensive line sliders? Just slow down my passing game a bit and hope for more possession there?
The concern from paulsgruff is quite constructive. In soccer world, midfield is very important. You must get as much as advantage as possible. It's quite common that if you face those strong sides such as Chelsea, Arsenal, Man U or Liverpool. Their strength in midfield is very high. So, there are 2 solutions. First, change the formation to put more player in midfield to get the ball. Second, sub strong defensive midfield to get the ball. If you manage a team which has limited resources. However you change the players and formation, you can't win the midfield. Then, the only way you can do is to defense deep or all out attack. You may get surprise result.
interesting, but isn't this counterintuitive? if you have advantage in attack and disadvantage in defence, should not you set the defensive line and mentality low to settle your defence a bit?
see, i am not asking from a conceptual level...i agree with you that if i am bad at defending i would attack. but what i am wondering is if you have a weak defense and a strong attack more often you will have advantage in your defense and disadvantage in opposition defense zone.
so if your idea works, then can we extend it to saying that you cabn concentrate on strengthening your defense in terms of players bought, keep your attack as it is, play a low defensive line and a defensive mentality and still win in the game?
Tweaking by Using "Action Zone" 
Linear Mode
